Court rejects Khan's petition, adjourns hearing till Nov 5

Mumbai, Sep 30 (UNI) A local court today rejected the application filed by Tariq Khan, seeking to allow him to make other police officers, including dismissed encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, respondent in an extortion case filed against another encounter specialist Daya Nayak for allegedly threatening to kill him.

After the arguments on the petition by complainant's advocate, the Metropolitan Magistrate G S Wankhede rejected the application and adjourned the hearing till November five.

Earlier, Mr Khan had told the court that Nayak and other police officers had threatened to kill him in an encounter if he failed to pay a sum of Rs five lakh to them. He filed the complaint under section 319 of Criminal Procedure Code, wherein he had prayed to make Sharma and others party for allegedly issuing threats to him.

In the complaint, he submitted that on March 19, 1997, while he was on his way back from work, a Maruti van and a Maruti car intercepted him near Bharatnagar Bridge, Kurla. Daya Nayak, Pradeep Sharma and five others picked him up and took him to Juhu's Chandan Chowky.

A Kalina-based scrap dealer, Mr Khan told the court that they had demanded a price to release him from custody. After negotiating for a day, Khan was let off on March 20 after he agreed to pay Rs two lakh. He had handed over Rs two lakh to one Raju Sharma, who gave the money to the policemen. He had also stated that his brother had filed a missing complaint on March 19.

But about 15 days later, Nayak had allegedly telephoned Mr Khan and demanded more money. He then recorded the conversations with Nayak and on the basis of that approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which directed the then city police commissioner to enquire into the case.

On July 24, 1998, the police commissioner wrote to State CID directing them to file a complaint. Based on that, the CID later filed a case of extortion and abduction with the Kherwadi police station.

UNI ST SSS MIR HT1622